Taiwan has recorded its first dengue fever death in this year, following a week in which domestic cases climbed by 206 to 630, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
A woman in her 40s from Tainan died on July 21 after being hospitalized with dengue fever, marking the first fatality of Taiwan’s worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in a decade.
A single dengue fever case can be linked to three or four other people who do not have detectable clinical symptoms. As it is summer holiday, a high season for traveling, sporadic cases could turn into clusters or outbreaks in communities, which increases the risk of transmission in urban areas.
Dengue infections are caused by mosquitoes carrying one of the four closely related viruses: DENV-1 to 4. These four viruses are called serotypes because each interacts differently with the antibodies in human serum. Common factors associated with dengue infection include society, population, insects and environment, as well as temperature and rainfall.
As disease-carrying mosquitoes only fly limited distances, it is the mobility of people that has facilitated the spread of the disease. As dengue hotspots are in southern Taiwan, such as the Rende (仁德) and Yongkang (永康) districts in Tainan, officials must account for potential change factors such as mobility, living environment, mosquito density in each district based on population and the weekly weather, to model possible dengue outbreaks in nearby neighborhoods.
The CDC needs to put forward the best preventive measures. If failure occurs the CDC also needs to determine whether it is caused by management strategies or ineffective measures.
The only measure currently used to control the disease is to suppress or eliminate mosquito populations. The direct method is to use insecticide spraying or make use of natural predators against mosquitoes. The indirect method is to have the public take urgent action to reduce mosquito breeding habitats by keeping their living environment clean and free of containers with stagnant water.
A new mosquito control strategy based on genetically manipulating mosquitoes is still being developed, but humans need to bear in mind the technology’s ethical implications and its impact on the ecosystem. Using fish and crustaceans to feed on mosquito larvae could take a bite out of mosquito populations, but the proposal has not yet been tested in communities.
As Aedes aegypti mosquitoes usually feed and live indoors, installing screens for doors and windows can prevent them from flying in. The public sector should encourage and subsidize the installation of screens in people’s houses.
The government should educate residents of neighborhoods hit by dengue fever on how to fight the disease and share the responsibility. In this way, it should be easier to introduce interference measures such as clearing waste, insecticide spraying and adopting ovitraps. As single measures cannot stamp out dengue fever, overall environmental management of neighborhoods and combined interference measures should yield superior results. Dengue fever prevention requires cooperation across sectors, where resources should be aimed at curbing the outbreak, not just reducing mosquito populations, as it does not necessarily prevent dengue fever outbreaks.
Furthermore, the anti-dengue campaign requires talented people with a public health background who have suitable knowledge of prevention and prediction measures. Without making such an investment, fighting dengue fever is an uphill battle
.
Wong Ruey-hong is a professor at Chung Shan Medical University’s School of Public Health.
Translated by Rita Wang
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder